The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 893, 7 October 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1881.

Tub first of November next will be a day of mourning, of weeping, and gnashing of teeth to bookmakers and to the promoters of consultations. These ministers to the votaries of "long shots" have but three weeks left in which to wind up their business before the Gaming and Lotteries Act snuffii out their occupations. What will become of the professional bookmakers who during the racing seasons have been wont to range all parts of the colony like "birds of My J" We believe that the Act will be fatal to their profession, and that neighboring colonies which have not as yet attained the pitch of virtuous legislative altitude which we have reached will oain the talent which we shall lose. It must not be supposed, however, that betting on our racecourses will be a thing of the past, The depression of the professional business will be followed by tho expansion of amateur transactions. Public betting is suppressed by the Act but private wagers are beyond its scope. The former must more or less be suppressed, but the latter will flourish, We are not sorry to see the end of consultations, Every year scores of thousands of pounds have been invested in them in New Zealand, and as ut rule it may be admitted that these institutions have been fairly conducted, and the money has remained in the country, hut they were attended with one grave drawback, Many men—perhaps many thousand men-have been tempted to invest pounds with which they should have paid their butcher, their baker, or their storekeeper. They could not,' however, resist the slender chance they had of winning a hundred or a thousand pounds, and so they paid away money in a direction in'which they were not morally justified in spending it. We see no great harm in a man who has a pound in his pocket and whose debts are provided for choosing to risk it, for the chance of winning a much larger sum, but there is a decided wrong in a mail taking a pound out of his creditors pocket for the purpose of speculation; and for this reason we are not sorrv to say farewell to sweeps and lotteries. The general result of the Gamin" and Lotteries Act will, however, in a "reat measure depend upon its administration. We presume the Government intend to administer it, and will give instructions to the police fo carry out its provisions. To assume that it is only intended to be a scarecrow would tend to bring to bring the legislative labors of the Assembly into utter contempt, We hope to see it thoroughly carried out during the recess, so that tho practical value of it may be ascertained. Let the police slay and spare not, even though M.L.O's and M.H.R.'s fill into their net and J.P.'s have to be apprehended. During the coming race season all that remains to us will be a modest chance in the totalisator by the special permission of the Colonial Secretary, and that excitement which may he derived from a private wager. This, contrasted with the sweeps and the book-making of the past, will be but a mild quencher for the thirsty adventurer. We feel some sympathy with the Hon Mr Dick. In carrying out the Gaming and Lotteries •Act and the new licensing measure he will have responsibilities which will keep his hands full and his mind anxious. Under the one he has to underbrush a thousand gambling organisations which have, taken root and sprung up here and there all over the colony, and under the other he has to call into existence nearly a thousand new licensing bodies, Let us hope that virtue will lie rewarded, and that a " moral marble monument" will have yet to be erected to the indefatigable Colonial Secretary when he is worn out with his present arduous duties.